Intergenerational Trauma

Women may pass the effects of childhood trauma on to their daughters, suggests research in JAMA Psychiatry. Researchers studied the medical records of more than 46,000 Finnish people born from 1933 to 1944, and 93,000 of their children. During World War II, thousands of Finnish children were sent to live with foster families in Sweden, Denmark and Norway. Previous research had found that the children who were sent away had worse physical and mental health outcomes as adults than did those who stayed. One study found that women who were evacuated were more likely to be hospitalized for a psychiatric disorder as adults than their siblings who had stayed with their families. The new study found that the daughters of the refugee women were also at elevated risk: They were four times more likely to be hospitalized for a psychiatric disorder than the daughters of mothers who had stayed. The evacuees’ sons, however, did not have any elevated risk. The researchers caution that the study does not address whether the mothers pass sown. the risk through parenting behavior, epi-genetic changes or other factors. (Monitor on Psychology)